Warsaw Zone Training - Speak only in Polish and study only in Polish!

So on Saturday we had the chance to go to leave Poznań for the day and go to Warsaw for zone training. We're not part of that zone but there was some confusion with the travel and plans so instead of going to Gdańsk for training we went to the Capital. We left early that morning at around 8, I had McDonald's breakfast which is a must before train rides. We got to Warsaw and it was cold and it had rained..there was also a NATO summit going on so the streets were closed and there were Police everywhere and every few minutes a police escort would drive past. It was the first time in the Warsaw chapel.  

We actually have a church building, not just a rented out office space. It's pretty nice too. It was good to see missionaries I've not seen for a while, even some from the mission I've never met before. President and Sister Turek were running late so we had lunch and chatted before the meeting. I got to see my bro and trainer Elder Taylor one last time, which we thought would never happen. Sisters Kamp, Dekker and Barney were there too so it was good to see them. 

Elder Taylor - bro and trainer

The training meeting started, we had some reading and preparation to do on faith for the meeting - and so faith is exactly what we spoke about. The whats, the whos and the whys of faith. It was short but we were taught a lot and it sparked a lot of thoughts in my mind. President and Sister Turek are great people and it's going to be good working with them. We took some things home with us, one of those things being,  speak only in Polish and study only in Polish, this is going to help us all progress a lot.

Warsaw Zone Training - President and Sister Turek front right

We left training with the Lublin Elders and we did it in perfect missionary style by setting off late and then having to get across Warsaw to the station in world record time. We got the first tram and then had to get off and sprint to the metro and catch an underground train and then get off that with a final 300m sprint to the station. It was tense, tiring, funny, and probably a funny sight for the public to see,  7 smartly dressed missionaries carrying boxes and bags running across Warsaw!  So in the end the Lublin Elders missed their train by literally 1 minute, and we made ours with 3 minutes to spare. 

Church was good yesterday.  We had 3 members show up and also we had someone we invited there too which was a miracle from the week. Karol and Sergiusz both spoke on the topic of leadership in the church and then I finished the meeting by talking about how we can remember the Saviour using the talk from Elder Gong from the  last conference. 

Other things that have gone on this week. We had a really nice lunch on Tuesday after district meeting at this Indian place, it was really nice.  I had something similar to tikka massala maybe. I got bit again, twice on my shin and then one down by where my ankle meets my foot, and they've swelled up a lot, quite annoying and they're itchy as flip but I'll get over it.

We played football on an actual 3g pitch with goals on Friday, kicking a ball about is the best way for me to relieve stress I feel. 

We've decided to focus on the members and less active work as our biggest effort, we've not been having much success with finding and contacting so we feel member and less active work is what we should do. We're still going to find and contact but we're trying to find new ways in which we can make those finding activities successful.

Warsaw Chapel

All I've got time for, have a boss week!

Pozdrawiam,

-Starszy Ashworth